News on interstellar matter
- Cygnus-X: the cool swan glowing in flight
- New molecules and star formation in the Milkyway
- The dust in the belt of Orion
- Missing dark matter in interstellar space around the Sun
- New 15meter telescope first ligth
- Tiny particles key to understanding early solar system
- New WISE catalog of entire infrared sky
- The Milkyway is full of bubbles
- Discovery of solid buckyballs in space
- Sources of rare Earth-elements found in space
- Dark clouds in Taurus
- Alien matter in the Solar system
- New mapping show cold gas and strange haze
- The sound of the universe
- Discovery of million degrees hot molecular gasses
- Most detailed infrared image of the Carina nebula
- An interstellar star-nursery
- Infrared image of the famous Helix-nebula
- Widefield infrared view of Milkyway's dust
- The smoky core of the Omega Nebula M17
- Star rebels against its parent cloud
- Observation of a cool gas-cloud being swallowed by black hole
- European astronomers discover cocoons of radiation in nebula
- SOFIA airborne observatory views star forming region W40
- The Cool Clouds of the Carina-nebula
Share this page
Sun and Moon today
Newsletter
RSS Feeds
|
Ghostly spiral structure in the Milkyway
Thursday, 07 October 2010 12:36
|
 |
| Astronomy - Interstellar matter |
|
Scientists have yet to discover what caused the strange spiral structure in this new image from the Hubble telescope. They have no idea either of why it glows. The glow may be caused by light reflected from nearby stars. As for the spiral itself, current supposition is that this is the result of a star in a binary star system entering the planetary nebula phase, when its outer atmosphere is ejected. Given the expansion rate of the spiral gas, a new layer must appear for every 800 years, which a close match to the time it takes for the two stars to orbit each other.
The above image was taken in near-infrared light by the Hubble Space Telescope. CLICK IMAGE for a full resolution version Source: NASA's gallery of new images |
